The show continues to focus on the family trying to work well together. Mick and his brother [Gregory Harrison] resolve their issues. Also, there’s a very interesting plot between Mick and son Connor, who go up against one another over a parcel of land.

Is peaceful Chesapeake Shores an antithesis to a lot of what’s on TV now?

Last year TheWashington Post did a lovely piece on how there’s so much anger and vitriol with what’s going on in the world that people are turning to Hallmark as a way of shutting off the realities of the world. I think Chesapeake Shores is a place for people who want to breathe a little bit and get away from the barrage.

You got your start in musicals. Would you ever do another one?

Well, I starred in, I think, one of the best ones ever made—Hair—so I’ve got that under my belt already. Would I do another one? Sure. I just costarred with Jennifer Lopez and Vanessa Hudgens in a film called Second Act, which will be out Thanksgiving Day, and Vanessa did Rizzo in the live Grease that was on TV. There was a lot of singing going on between her and me during shooting.

When you started Chesapeake Shores, you said part of the appeal of the show for you was that it had a Frank Capra–esque feeling to it. How so?

I think Frank Capra really believed in the innate goodness of people, even though there were villainous people. For instance, in It’s a Wonderful Life, Lionel Barrymore plays someone who’s not evil but certainly greed has overtaken. His world is, I take what I take and I do it legally. There’s no thought about the moral ramifications of him creating Pottersville.

One of the things that I love about Capra is that things can go wrong, but ultimately people… For instance, I loved the plot line of It’s a Wonderful Life, where George [James Stewart] has a chance to see that, for all of his problems, that the love of family and good friends is really what’s most important, and caring about other people.

We certainly focus mostly on the O’Brien family. I’m hoping that eventually we’ll have more. I love shows that are peopled with townsfolk that are a little bit offbeat, like Mayberry. There’s so many members to the family right now that the show focuses very much on the near family. But I think it’s Capra-esque in that sense that you never walk away from a Capra film feeling anything but better about your fellow man. Hopefully, that’s one of the things Chesapeake Shores does also.

You have been all over TV recently, doing guest roles on shows like Chicago Fire and Blue Bloods. What does it take to get you away from your home in Vermont?

Two kids in college is one thing. But I’m doing theater too. I did a David Mamet play last year in Vermont. I’m doing another Mamet reading this summer at the Dorset Playhouse in Dorset, Vermont. I love working with Tom Selleck. He and I are like peas in a pod when we work together. We usually don’t even want to rehearse, we’re like, “Let’s just go do it.”

I love Chicago Fire. It’s a group of really, really fine actors, lots of them from Chicago theater. You have a group of guys that are not prima donnas doing really good work as actors.

I like to work. I’ll be going home when Chesapeake Shores is over. I have all of August off. Then for three weeks, I’m in Chicago doing Chicago Fire. At this point in my life if I’m going to go leave the house in Vermont, which I absolutely adore, it really has to be, “Oh, boy, I can’t wait to get on the airplane to do this with these guys.” It’s just so fun to play Benny Severide on Fire.

He’s so different from Mick.

Benny and Lenny Ross on Blue Bloods are a little bit more cutting-edge. Both of those two guys are loose-cannon cops or the loose-cannon firemen. Those guys are really fun to play. It’s a nice change of pace from Mick, who I love playing too, by the way.

You’re doing something special to commemorate D-Day in June 2019.

I have been invited—and am deeply honored—to fly one of the DC-3s from the United States to England, then over to France and drop paratroopers for the 75th anniversary of D-Day. It’s called Daks [Douglas DC-3/C-47 Skytrains, or Dakotas] Over Normandy. There’ll be three of us pilots switching off. My uncle, Treat Andrew, was killed in the war at 19. He was a tail gunner. My father was a paratrooper. I’m going to honor them by going on this wonderful mission.

How did you get involved with Daks Over Normandy?

A friend of mine, George Collins, a personal pilot, who ended up flying for Delta. He called me up about two months ago and said, “Hey, there’s an airplane out here called Miss Montana. They’re going to get it up to speed. Would you like to be one of the three pilots flying it over to this event?”

There are certain books that I loved as a kid and I said to my friend, Robert Neubecker, who’s a wonderful illustrator best known for his poster for Sideways, I said, “Bob, I’ve seen a lot of laminated books of pictures of airplanes, but I’ve never seen a book that pictured airplanes the way I remember as a kid.”

My dad built for my sister and me this thing with, like, an airplane panel with buzzers, whistles and bells. I’ve got a picture of my sister and me with astronaut helmets on playing with it. It was one of the things that got me excited about aviation.

I decided I would really like to make a book to see airplanes through a child’s eyes with big colors and loud engines, the way I envisioned them when I was 5 or 6. I made the book for the child in me, and Robert did a wonderful job of illustrating it.

How did you get your start in musicals?

I did lots and lots of musicals in college. In fact, I got my pilot’s license by singing in college [Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania].

That’s how you paid for your flying lessons?

Yeah, that and driving a cab. I wasn’t that much in demand. We were singing at parties and stuff. As soon as I got to New York, my first job was to understudy all the male leads in Grease, Johnny Travolta and Jeff Conaway. Then I did my second musical with the Andrews sisters. Again, Johnny Travolta and also Marilu Henner, another Hallmark regular, was in it. Then I went back into Grease and, basically, took over the lead for three years as Danny Zuko on Broadway.

My first five years in the business, aside from the occasional movie, were in musical comedy. I’ve gone back consistently to do musicals. I did a Stephen Sondheim musical with Gregory Harrison called Follies. I did a musical version of Captains Courageous. I’ve turned some things down because doing eight shows a week now when you don’t live in New York, you’re giving up quite a bit. So it would have to be something extraordinary for me.

So you sing on the movie sets?

Oh, I sing everywhere. I sing in the shower.

As much as you love what you do, you choose to live away from Hollywood. When did that happen for you and when did you make the decision?

I never made a decision. I never lived in Hollywood. I’ve never owned property in Hollywood. I love Hollywood. I love my trips out there. I stay at the beach. At 7 a.m., I’m up. I [run] six or seven miles, I do the path every morning. I’m very happy there. But I was always a New York theater kid. I came up through New York theater.

When I got out to California after The Eagle Has Landed, my first big, pretty good role, my agent wanted me to go out [on auditions]. After six months, I said, “I really miss being onstage, I miss my life in New York City, I miss New England.” He said, “Well, go home. That’s fine. Don’t do it from there.”

When you’re starting out as an actor, it’s very difficult. You’re driving from studio to studio to go and audition amongst 30 other actors. It just didn’t feel right for me. I wanted to work and I wanted to work in theater, so I was doing a lot of stuff off Broadway. I just felt more comfortable in my little apartment in New York. Ultimately, my wife, Pam, and I bought a house 30 years ago in Vermont and moved there.

The East Coast has been my home. I’ve rented houses for up to two years during series in California, but the day the series was over, then the furniture went back and I went home. I adore California. I think it’s one of the most beautiful places on earth. I would recommend as an item on your bucket list driving up the Pacific Coast Highway. In fact, all the way up the entire West Coast in the United States. It’s extraordinary.

The best advice you’ve ever received?

Do what you want. Do what you love. Be passionate about it. The rest will take care of itself. I always lived by that. I think it’s a great way to pursue anything in life that you love. Be passionate about it, commit yourself to it, and the rest will come. I don’t know how sage that is, but that’s the best I got today.

AMG/Parade Digital

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